Potsdam and the Natural History Museum

I would first like to say that Nancy and I did not ditch Yao and Michael, yesterday just was not a good day for estimating the amount of time the U bahn takes to get somewhere. But I'm glad that in the end everything worked out well.

Nancy and I also went to Potsdam, walking through town to see Schloss Sans Souci, a beautiful baroque castle with a gorgeous park and garden associated with it. The park was nice even in the winter, I can imagine that it would be stupendous in the spring and summer. We wandered through the park, visiting the Chinese house, the Roman baths, and another small castle in the park. On our journey, we saw several nice landscapes and frozen lakes and streams. Several people were ice skating on one of the larger lakes, and we carefully watched them to see where to get on (both Nancy and I were apprehensive about walking on thin ice, crashing through, and then floundering in freezing water). After observing for a little while we joined them on the ice, though it took a little convincing to get Nancy to join me. It was so fun to slide around in the middle of an outdoor pond in our regular shoes! Little did we know that when we got back to Berlin, we would be doing the same thing on the city sidewalks due to freezing rain.

First though, we had lunch in the Postdam Hauptbahnhof, where I had a döner with all three sauces and every available vegetable (cucumber, tomato, onion, lettuce, and something else) on it. With the mound of lamb they put on it, it was ginormous! I had a bit of difficulty fitting it in my mouth, but of course I prevailed.

Then, back in Berlin, we tried to get tickets to an evening concert, but they were, predictably, sold out. Oh well. We probably should have tried to get tickets earlier on the week, like on Monday, but live and learn. Instead we went to the Natural History Museum and saw several stuffed animals, mineral samples (amethyst, antimony, etc), and bones. Most excitingly, there was the largest standing brontosaurus in the world! It filled up the room, and I took lots of pictures. This dinosaur was AWESOME! While I was contemplating if a particular specimen of taxidermy was a badger, a curator told myself and other museum goers that the museum was closing and we had to leave. Then, while I was getting my coat from the garderobe, the lights were turned off. YIKES! They really meant business. So, Nacny and I trekked through the freeying rain back to the bahnhof then to our hotel, where we saw Andy, Julie, Lacie, and Jessica outside. We hung out for a bit, then Nancy and I decided that we should get supper as it was 9:00. We went to a nice Italian restaurant, and I had some marvelous penne pasta with broccoli and a white cheese and sauce. Then, to bed.

Today we wander around Berlin for another couple of hours, then onward to Hannover!